La Chienne (1931) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

Maurice is desperate for affection and recognition. His wife Adèle constantly mocks his paintings and treats him with contempt. When he meets Lulu on the street, he believes he's finally found someone who sees value in him. Despite knowing Lulu's profession and that Dédé is her pimp, Maurice chooses to ignore these facts because the alternative is returning to his miserable home life where his dreams are dismissed.

Foreshadowing: Maurice's desire for artistic recognition is established early when Adèle degrades his paintings, foreshadowing his vulnerability to Lulu's manipulation.

• maurice legrand
• lulu
• adèle
• love
• desperation
• manipulation

Dédé and Lulu created a scheme where they claimed the paintings were painted by Lulu under a fictional alias called Clara Wood, described as her American brother. When Maurice discovered his paintings at the art store, Lulu convinced him to go along with the lie, telling him she and her fictitious brother had sold the works to the collector Wallstein. Maurice complied because he wanted to believe his art was finally gaining recognition, even through someone else's name.

Foreshadowing: The moment Dédé grabs Maurice's paintings from Lulu's apartment marks the beginning of the scheme that will spiral out of control.

• paintings
• clara wood
• art fraud
• dédé
• lulu
• scheme

Maurice goes to Lulu's apartment expecting intimacy, only to find her in bed with Dédé. He leaves in shock but returns the next morning to confront her. Lulu then admits she has always loved Dédé and reveals she stayed with Maurice only for his money. This confession of pure exploitation, combined with the humiliation of the affair and his complicity in the painting fraud, drives Maurice to stab her in a moment of despair and rage.

Foreshadowing: Lulu's repeated lies about selling the paintings and her growing contempt for Maurice foreshadow the emotional breaking point that leads to violence.

• murder
• lulu
• dédé
• betrayal
• confession
• stabbing

Maurice leaves the apartment immediately after stabbing Lulu, leaving no witnesses. When police investigate, they consider both men's criminal histories. Maurice has no prior record, while Dédé is known as a pimp with a criminal background. Without evidence pointing to Maurice and given Dédé's history, authorities charge him with the murder. Dédé is found guilty and executed, while Maurice walks free despite being the actual killer.

Foreshadowing: The investigation's outcome reflects the period's tendency to judge based on social standing and criminal history rather than evidence.

• dédé
• execution
• murder trial
• police investigation
• false accusation

Alexis Godard reveals he survived the war by switching identities and was imprisoned by the Germans. He approaches Maurice at a café asking for one thousand francs. Maurice knows Adèle has hidden money in her wardrobe. Rather than simply giving Alexis the money, Maurice orchestrates a theft as revenge against his wife and perhaps hoping the scandal might change his circumstances. He arranges for Alexis to steal while Maurice pretends they'll attend the theater, creating a false alibi.

Foreshadowing: This scheme demonstrates Maurice's growing willingness to engage in deception, foreshadowing his complete moral decline.

• alexis godard
• theft
• adèle
• money
• scheme
• revenge

After Lulu's murder becomes public and the painting fraud unravels, Maurice's employer accuses him of mishandling 2,500 francs. While officially citing health problems as the reason for termination, the real cause appears to be Maurice's involvement in the scandal and the police investigation. He loses his position as a cashier and, with no other skills or support, becomes unable to maintain any stable life.

Foreshadowing: The firing marks the final collapse of Maurice's ordinary existence, pushing him toward complete destitution.

• job
• fire
• cashier
• money
• unemployment
• scandal

Maurice loses everything systematically: his job after the scandal, his lover Lulu (whom he killed), his artistic aspirations (his work was stolen and attributed to someone else), and eventually his wife Adèle, who dies. With no income, no home, and no one left to turn to, Maurice drifts into homelessness. The final scene shows him and Alexis捡起掉落的20法郎，象征着他已沦为街头流浪者，曾经的艺术梦想彻底破灭。

Foreshadowing: Maurice's gradual loss of everything, job, love, dignity, follows a downward spiral that began with his first deception.

• homeless
• vagrant
• poverty
• downfall
• ending
• maurice

Alexis Godard, the presumed-dead former husband of Adèle, survives the war by switching identities and being held as a POW. After approaching Maurice for money and participating in the theft scheme, he remains alive. In the film's ending, he reunites with Maurice on the street, and they become companions in destitution, 两个失去一切的男子一起堕落，象征着他们共同的社会边缘化。

Foreshadowing: Alexis's survival and return from the dead mirrors the film's themes of deception and hidden identities.

• alexis godard
• war
• survival
• ex-husband

The final scene shows Maurice's self-portrait being driven away in a car while he and Alexis捡起street上的20法郎。 The self-portrait represents Maurice's abandoned artistic ambitions, his dream of becoming a recognized painter is literally being carried away, symbolizing how far he's fallen from his aspirations. Meanwhile,捡起small coins reflects his desperate new reality of struggling for basic生存。 The juxtaposition emphasizes the tragic irony of a man who once created art now reduced to scavenging.

Foreshadowing: The self-portrait echoes Maurice's earlier hope that his art would bring him recognition, a hope now completely extinguished.

• self-portrait
• art
• ending
• irony
• symbolism

The film doesn't provide explicit details about Adèle's death. After the theft scheme fails and Alexis is revealed to be alive, Adèle's fate becomes unclear until Maurice encounters Alexis on the street, who casually informs him that Adèle has died. The circumstances of her death remain offscreen, adding to the bleakness of Maurice's situation, his wife passes away while he's wallowing in his own destruction, and he learns about it in a chance street encounter.

Foreshadowing: Adèle's offscreen death underscores the film's themes of disconnection and the unnoticed passing of insignificant lives.

• adèle
• death
• ending
• bleakness